


Too Good For Me

by KaSaPe



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Jealousy, Lance and his insecurities, M/M, idk what to call this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-05
Updated: 2016-10-05
Packaged: 2018-08-19 18:10:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8220254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaSaPe/pseuds/KaSaPe
Summary: When Pidge can't find Keith on a party hosted by the aliens they rescued barely a few hours before, she gets his boyfriend to help her search. When Lance finally finds Keith, it turns out that he wasn't lost at all, he was simply getting entertained by some random alien dude.Jealousy ensues which leads to a fight which leads to a talk about feelings. Thankfully Keith is way more understanding than anyone would have thought.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PenWoman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PenWoman/gifts).



> So. This was a request where I was supposed to write about jealous!Lance but the more I thought about it... the more it just turned into insecure!Lance being jealous because he feels inferior. Eh. Sorry for that? :'D
> 
>  ~~Unedited and unbetaed (and English is still hard uuugh) because I'm currently working on a bigger project that I am way more invested in than this. Sorry guys.~~  
>  So, I finally got around to editing this! :D I changed a few things that were bothering me and I hope that there are less mistakes this time around, I can't believe I've procrastinated this for so long///

“Lance, have you - are you _flirting_ with her?" 

At Pidge’s voice Lance stopped chatting with the alien girl next to him and shot her a dirty look. "What the hell, I thought we were over this already."

"Yeah, so thought I-"

"I wasn't _flirting_ with her!" He quickly turned around to the girl and gave her a bright smile. "No offense." Turning back towards Pidge, he continued. "I was just talking. In fact I was just telling her about my boyfriend - _the only one I care about_ , mind you - who left me here a while ago."

Lance kept staring darkly at Pidge and took a sip of his drink. It was purple and tasted flowery, somehow. The paladins were always suspicious when it came to him laughing with alien girls - and okay, maybe he had kind of a history with them, but that was over now! In the past! He wasn't interested anymore! He had Keith, for gods sake! He still liked making people laugh but that was all there was to it.

Pidge just nodded slowly as if she wasn't sure whether she should believe him. Whatever. 

"So did you need something?" Lance mumbled, his good mood pretty much gone.

"Ah! Right! Do you know where Keith went?”

“Keith?" Lance tried to remember where he had disappeared to. Talking to Shiro? No, getting drinks? The toilet, maybe? He wasn't sure anymore. Maybe he already went to sleep. He wasn’t really concerned, Keith disappeared from parties once in a while, that much was well-known. In fact, he knew better than anyone else that Keith sometimes needed his alone time to calm down after a long and strenuous battle.

"Nu-uh. Why? Something wrong?” 

Pidge sighed. “Nothing’s _wrong_ , exactly. It’s just that he promised me to let me take a look at his lion after the mission-”

Lance’s snort cut her off. “We just finished the mission, can’t you at least wait until tomorrow with your tech-addiction? Relax and live a little! Am I right?” At this, he shot a wide grin at the alien girl next to him. She nodded and grinned back in support while he took another sip of his drink, satisfied with the situation. Finally someone that understood him.

Pidge wasn't amused, apparently. “I wasn’t trying to look at his lion _now_ , I just wanted to ask him when I can do it tomorrow. I know it took quite a hit earlier and wanted to make sure that-”

Not letting her finish that sentence, Lance sighed dramatically and draped an arm over her shoulder. “Pidge. My buddy. It’s admirable that you are so dedicated to your work but right now we are at a _party_ -”

“As I was saying,” she cut in sharply, “I wanted to make sure that everything is alright before we leave tomorrow evening. But Keith isn’t with any of the others.”

Lance shrugged and leaned away from her again. He noticed with disdain that the alien girl had turned away from their conversation already - she had told him a lot of fun stories about cultural slip ups from other guests they had welcomed on their planet before the Galra had arrived.  “Come on, it's not that serious. You act as if he was abducted by the Galra or something, this isn’t totally unheard of. Did you check the castle?” 

Once again Pidge sent him a glare. She was doing that quite a lot today.

“Of course I did! That’s the first place I went to after he wasn’t with any of us. I even checked the cameras but he is nowhere to be found.”

Lance simply blinked for a few seconds as he processed these words and tried to quell the worry in his stomach. No. It was fine. Keith disappeared once in a while. This was nothing unusual, nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe he fell asleep on the toilet. “Are you sure you didn’t overlook him? Did you check all the cameras from the very moment this party began?”

“Is this the face of someone that didn’t check like three times already?!” 

Quickly giving her a once over and deciding that she looked agitated if nothing else, Lance gulped. “I… don’t know…”

“I did. I checked three times. And before you ask,” she said, holding a finger to his face, “he wasn’t with his lion either.”

Despite his earlier efforts Lance now felt worry settle deep inside his stomach. Keith disappeared sometimes, yes, but he didn't _disappear_ disappear. He just... left early. “Then… on the balcony, maybe?”

Pidge glowered at him for a few more seconds before setting off in the direction of the balcony. Lance set his drink down and immediately hurried after her. It was about Keith after all and Lance suddenly felt an intense urge to see him, to make sure that he was safe and sound and as happy as he could be.

But Keith wasn’t at the balcony either. Or outside. Or in the castle or with the lions, when Pidge and Lance checked there again.

Lance was seconds from pulling his hair out and asking Allura to broadcast an emergency meeting announcement (“Maybe he really was abducted by the Galra, Pidge! Quiznak, what are we supposed to do now?!” “Now you are getting irrational”) when he saw him in a dark corner at the bar. Relief clashed over Lance like a wave and he almost felt his knees go wobbly - Keith was here, Keith was safe, Keith never even left. He had been here this whole time. Reaching out for Pidge grabbing her collar to prevent her from walking any further, Lance smiled in his direction.

But before he could call out for his boyfriend, Keith threw his head back and laughed.

He laughed.

Lance froze in place, fully taking in the scene that unfolded in front of his eyes. Keith was sitting next to an alien guy who gesticulated wildly with his hands, totally engrossed in whatever story he was telling. Keith had stopped laughing now but the amused, happy smile hadn't left his face as he kept listening to whatever  _bullshit_ the other guy was spewing over there.

The worry in his stomach made way for something cold and unpleasant.

“Lance? Lance, you asshole, let go of me! You are strangling me, what is wrong with you?!”

Finally coming back to his senses, Lance released his hold on Pidge. He needed to go over there and take Keith away from the guy. The alien was bad news, Lance just knew it. Something was decidedly wrong over there.

But before he could reach them, Pidge had grabbed his arm and tugged him back again. “What are you doing?” he hissed at her.

She glared back. “What am I doing? The question here is: what are _you_ doing?! Keith is having fun for once, do you even remember the last party he smiled at when he wasn’t with any of us?”

Lance opened his mouth to answer her only to realize that he couldn’t. Pidge nodded. “Exactly. So you are going to leave him there to have his fun and we’ll talk to him later, yeah? There is no need to drag him away now that we know that he is safe.”

_No_ , his mind screamed at him, _no, I won’t leave him there. Keith is my boyfriend, not that alien guy’s. What did Keith think he was doing? What did the alien think he was doing?!_

But Lance kept silent about these thoughts and let himself get dragged away. Got himself another drink. Struck up a few new conversations. He even started flirting again just to get his mind off the situation he had stumbled upon… but he couldn’t. Keith’s bright and honest smile was engraved in his head and he couldn’t get it out. He had seemed so open and happy with that guy in the corner and for some reason it made Lance furious. 

It was wrong. _Wrong, wrong, wrong,_ he kept telling himself. Keith was allowed to have fun. Hell, Keith _should_ have fun. There was absolutely nothing wrong with that. And it wasn't as if Keith had been cheating on him, Lance knew that he was a way better person than that.

So why was he acting like this?!

He shook his head, trying to get these thoughts out of it. Today was going to be a long night.

 

When nighttime finally rolled around, Lance couldn’t wait to see Keith. He was impatient and when he finally met him, his first instinct was to shout at him instead of smile and Lance had never felt more horrible than at that moment. Especially when Keith's expression lit up warmly upon seeing him. Keith was too good for him, he decided.

Keith was also too good for that alien guy though, so Lance really hoped he wouldn’t see him ever again. 

“Hey beautiful,” Lance greeted Keith as he threw an arm over his shoulder. Keith rolled his eyes but leaned into him.

“What’s up?”

“Oh, nothing much. Just waiting for the love of my life to come around,” Lance said lightly, observing Keith from corner of his eyes. And sure enough, he was blushing in the same cute way he always did when Lance dropped a casual love confession. He could feel himself grinning in victory. Keith was adorable.

“God. Why do you always say stuff like that?”

“Hm? Because it’s true?” His grin deepened when he felt Keith’s shoulders rising at that. That was a telltale sign that he was embarrassed and didn’t know how to reply to him. Next he would say-

“Whatever,” was Keith’s mumbled response. See? Lance was right! Take that, random alien dude. Lance knew way more about Keith than he did.

Not wanting the conversation between them to die out, Lance picked the next topic he could think of.

“Hey, wanna come over to my room? Have you seen our beds?! They are gigantic!” He let go of Keith to demonstrate his point by waving his arms around. Both of them came to a halt in front of Lance’s door. “Enormous! And super fluffy, the absolute best! We could finally cuddle without one of us suffocating the other!”

Keith snorted. “Alright, I’ll stop by later. I’ll have to go to my room first though, we didn’t even get time to change out of these gross clothes yet.” He plucked at the black shirt underneath his jacket and Lance wrinkled his nose.

“Now that you mention it, something definitely smells in here- _ow!_ What was that for?!”

“Insulting me?”

“You’re no fun,” Lance muttered while mock inspecting his nonexistent injury. “You probably broke my rib! The aliens will insist on treating me and cut me open and pump me full of strange stuff and then I’ll die! All because of you!”

“Maybe then I’ll get five minutes of silence,” Keith smirked. Lance gasped.

“That’s it, no more cuddling for you! I am deeply offended!”

But Keith just shrugged and turned away, making his way towards his own room. For a moment cold fear wrapped itself around Lance’s heart and he almost called out for Keith to _wait, he didn’t mean it like that, please come over later I really want to cuddle you_ \- but he managed to catch himself before anything slipped out. That would be weird. Keith knew he was joking. Right? He would come over. He totally would. Right?! And even if he didn’t, it was Keith’s own choice, Lance couldn’t exactly force him to cuddle with him. 

Trying to swallow the sudden tightness in his throat, Lance entered his own room. He would take a shower, apply some moisturizer to his face and arms and wait for Keith to show up. And if he didn’t show up… then he’d just go to sleep. Alone.

Keith was too good for him anyways.

Angrily wiping that thought aside, Lance set his shower to scalding hot. Pidge had been right, he was acting irrational. He didn’t have any reason to feel like this. What on earth was he doing?!

When he finally exited the bathroom Lance felt prepared for everything. He could deal with… Keith not coming over. He totally could. He would curl up and forget that today ever happened and everything would turn back to normal tomorrow. Fortunately it turned out that he didn't have to worry though - Keith was already there, sitting on his bed and fiddling with his knife.

The moment he heard the door opening, Keith lifted his head. “Finished, finally? Are you sure you didn’t forget to clean behind your ears?” he teased.

Lance was having none of that. “Excuse you, my ears are always perfectly clean. I definitely washed them, both behind and _inside_.”

Keith stared at him for a few seconds, then huffed out a laugh. “God, you are ridiculous. Get in here.” Grinning happily, Lance followed his order and threw himself onto the bed next, making the mattress bounce a little. 

“Did you have to do that?” Keith asked, sounding annoyed. Probably because he almost dropped his knife. Lance didn’t really care, he just wrapped his arms around his torso and pulled him next to him. For a few seconds Keith managed to resist the pull, just long enough to put the knife aside as to not hurt either of them, then he heavily dropped down onto soft cushions.

Lance immediately dragged him as close as possible, nuzzling his soft hair. So soft, so comfortable. Keith spluttered a bit, still trying to find a comfortable position, before happily relaxing into Lance’s arms. 

It was warm and Keith’s pyjamas were soft, turning him into even better cuddle material than usual. He also smelled faintly like soap and something distinctly _Keith_ that made something in Lance’s very core unfurl, reminding him of home. Somehow, unannounced, during all those months out in space, Keith had become his home.

“I love you,” Lance blurted out before he could stop himself. 

Keith didn’t seem to mind though. Far from it actually, Lance felt a smile stretching over his face through his shirt. “I love you too.”

They didn’t say anything else for the night and fell asleep tightly wrapped up in each other.

* * *

 

Oh no. Oh _hell_ no. No no no nope no, this was _not_ happening.

Lance had thought that he was over it. He had woken up with Keith at his side, had teased him about his horrendous bedhead and had held hands with him during breakfast. Or well, kind of. When they weren’t eating at least because Lance was shitty at using spoons with his left hand.  Then it had been midday and Keith had disappeared with Pidge to his lion. Lance himself had wanted to check up on Blue and hang out with Hunk a little, he almost felt as if he had neglected him ever since they had come back from the mission. And that was a big no-go, Hunk was still his best bud to ever walk the earth, so naturally they ended up eating lunch together.

And now it was time to say goodbye to the aliens - but the guy was back. That fucking alien. Talking to Keith, standing way too close to him. Making him laugh. _Again_.

The ugly feelings from yesterday came back full force, mixed with a weird vulnerability that he really didn't want to think about. It felt terrible and he wanted it to stop. He wanted the alien to disappear, he wanted Keith back to himself. And all of a sudden Lance knew with certainty where these feelings were coming from - not that that helped him to suppress them in any way.

Keith was too good for him. Way too good. He didn't deserve some overprotective, jealous asshole. 

But fuck him backwards if that meant that Lance would give him up to some random alien dude. With no Pidge to hold him back this time, Lance agitatedly stomped over.

“Excuse me,” he cut into the conversation, his tone freezing cold. His eyes bore into those of the alien. “This one here is my boyfriend. Keith. We’ve been together for three months now.”

Keith looked at Lance as if he had just popped a second head and the alien chuckled nervously. “I know that…?”

“What I am trying to say-” 

“Lance,” warned Keith. Lance didn’t listen.

“ _What I am trying to say,_ is that you better stop flirting with him.”

“Lance!”

“I'm serious, dude. Stay away from him. He’s too good for you.”

“Lance!” Keith stepped in front of the very uncomfortable looking alien guy and glared at Lance. It was almost enough to make him stop.

Almost.

“What are you still waiting around for? I told you to stay away. Do I really have to spell it out for you? Get. Lost.”

_“Lance!”_ This time Keith’s angry tone succeeded in shutting him up. Lance looked over at his boyfriend and visibly recoiled at the anger he saw there. Keith was angry- no. 

He was furious.

God. That wasn't what Lance had wanted to do. He didn’t- he hadn’t- he really hadn’t meant to make Keith upset but-

But there were no buts. He had done it. Lance's ugly feelings had finally betrayed him, they broken through the surface and now there was no going back.

Keith grabbed his wrist painfully tight and Lance wasn’t quite able to suppress a wince. The grip immediately loosened a bit, but definitely not enough to be comfortable yet. Then Keith turned around to look at the alien. 

“I’m sorry, I’m afraid I’ll have to talk to my _boyfriend_ for a bit.” The way Keith spat out the word ‘boyfriend’ made fear coil tight in Lance’s stomach. 

No. No, no, no, no, no.  This couldn't be it. Keith sounded as if he hated to call Lance his boyfriend - what if he wanted to break up? 

Shit. He had fucked up for good.

Lance tried his hardest to calm his erratic heartbeat and keep his eyes dry while Keith dragged them through the hall towards a more secluded corner. Lance wished someone would come and stop them, start a conversation, ask for help, anything - he was scared of what was going to happen now. Now that Keith knew who he really was, how bad he was at controlling his emotions. Just some worthless idiot that got jealous over his boyfriend laughing with other people. 

He didn’t want this. He didn’t want to lose Keith. God, he _couldn’t_ lose him.

Once they had reached a corner, Keith tugged him forward and let go of his wrist to cross his arms over his chest. “So. Care to explain? What was that just now?” he asked, voice icy.

Lance couldn’t do this.

“What was what? I was just making things clear!”

_He couldn’t do this._

“That was you ‘just making things clear’?! You told him to stay away from me! To get lost!”

Christ, he really couldn’t.

“He was flirting with you!”

Please, god, don’t let him start crying now. He couldn’t bear that humiliation on top of everything else.

“Flirting with me? He was making conversation, nothing else!” Keith was only one step away from shouting. And so was Lance.

“You laughed! Keith, you never laugh! I can probably count on both hands the times I’ve actually heard you laughing and I’ve known you for a year now!”

_Maybe,_ it hit him, _maybe that just meant that Keith wasn’t happy with him._

“I don’t- what has that got to do with anything?! I laughed for a total of maybe two times!”

“Oh? And you are telling me that I was coincidentally there to witness both of these times?”

Maybe Keith had never been happy with him.

“Maybe you were- wait, why are you trying to make me feel guilty for this? Why do I have to justify to you that I was laughing? What is wrong with you?!” Keith had separated his arms now and threw them in the air to underline his point. “You are my boyfriend! Aren’t you supposed to be happy to see me happy?!”

Lance didn’t know why these words were the ones that broke him. Actually, he probably did know - they hit way too close to home. Lance wanted to see him happy but he obviously wasn’t the guy to make him so.

Tears filled his eyes and he aggressively pressed his palms to them to keep them from flowing out.

“Are you _crying_ now?!” Keith asked incredulously. 

Biting back a sob, Lance let go of his eyes. “I know! I know I am pathetic, okay?! I know I cry easily and do stupid stuff! I know you are way too good for someone like me and I know that technically the guy over there didn’t do anything wrong but you were _laughing_ and you _never_ laugh - at least not with me because apparently I somehow managed to fail at the one thing I actually thought I was good at-”

“You - what? Wow, I need you to slow down there,” Keith said and slowly raised a hand towards Lance. Lance didn’t even realize, he had his eyes pressed closed and his hands clutching at his hair as he desperately tried to keep it together.  _Stop crying. Get a grip. What are you doing, you idiot. You have no right to act like this. You are pathetic._ There was an almost physical ache in his chest that made the tears keep flowing though, that didn't allow him to stop. Not now, not anytime soon.

“What - where did this come from? Who said all that?” 

Despite all the pain inside of him Lance managed to force out a laugh. “‘Where did this come from?’ Seriously?! Do you even notice what’s going on around you?!” His laugh turned into a sob and he finally let go of his hair. “Everyone says that!”

Keith frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“Are you blind?! Are you pretending to be stupid right now?!” Lance was shouting, he knew that, but he didn’t do anything to stop it. He had held it inside of him for way too long. 

“Everyone says that! Everyone! They don’t say it to my face but it’s there - it’s there in the way that Allura never actually told me what my qualities as the blue paladin are. It’s there in the way that Coran always checks up on me whenever we are talking about earth as if I am weaker than the rest of you. It’s there in the way Shiro has to remind me to stop doing stupid poses that lead to Voltron falling down, it’s there in the way that Pidge’s first reaction to all my plans is to shut me up, it’s there in the way that no matter how hard I train I will never be as good as you. Hell, it’s even there in the way that Hunk’s compliments are pretty much always about my jokes or comebacks and never about my fighting maneuvers or intelligence like the rest of you - as if the one and only thing that makes me _Lance_ is my ability to make people laugh!” 

Lance couldn’t keep himself from letting out a little laugh at the irony. “And now I am finding out that even that ability is a fluke because apparently some random ass alien dude can make my own  _boyfriend_ laugh more easily than I can-” At the feeling of another sob trying to force its way out of his throat Lance cut himself off, biting at his lips to keep it in. Enough. Enough already, Keith didn't need to know how messed up he really was.

There were a few beats of silence before Keith talked again. “You never… you never said anything…”

“How could I? What could I say? Yes hello this is Lance, I am just bringing it to your attention that I am the most pathetic and easily replaceable paladin out of all of-”

Suddenly hands gripped his shoulders. Hard. “Lance! Lance, listen to me. I really don't know where you got these ideas from but nothing about them is true, okay? I can promise you that-”

“They are true, Keith! They are true, these are all facts, don’t try to pretend they aren’t true-”

“But they are _out of context_ , Lance!” Keith interrupted him. He shook him a little. “Everything you said might be true but it’s totally out of context.” He paused for a while but kept talking before Lance could open his mouth. “Look, let’s continue this conversation in my room. I’ll let Allura know we had to leave early and we’ll discuss this in private.”

Lance didn't have any energy left to protest, he simply let himself be dragged along while Keith spoke to Allura through a tiny bracelet she had given to each of them in case emergencies arose. Before long they had reached Keith’s room, Lance stubbornly keeping quiet all the way but at least having gotten rid of the tears. Keith opened the door and pulled him in. Then they silently stood in the room, Keith watching Lance and Lance looking at the floor, wishing he had never said anything. 

“Sit down,” Keith said at least. His voice was quiet, gentle and Lance did as he was told without questioning it. He didn’t didn't want to fight.

There was a little more silence before Keith spoke again. “You… do know that no one actually thinks of you that way, right?”

Of course he did on some level. But that didn’t change the fact that all of the things he had said were true.

Interpreting Lance’s silence as affirmation Keith let out a sigh and sat down next to him. “Listen, I’m… really sorry that I didn’t notice how you felt before,” Keith began slowly. Lance could feel a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, Keith was always a little awkward when it came to discussions about feelings. But he was obviously trying very hard to find the right words so Lance kept quiet and listened.

“That was. Um, not cool, I guess. I really don’t know how I managed to miss it since it obviously bothers you quite a lot but… somehow I did.”

Lance let out a soft laugh, his heart constricting painfully. That was - that was just so Keith, so awkward but genuine at the same time. His tiny chuckle was followed up by a friendly nudge from Keith’s shoulder, Lance using that opportunity to lean against it. This was a mess, _he_ was a mess, but at least it didn’t seem anymore as if Keith wanted to break up with him.

There was some more silence before Keith placed his hand over Lance’s. “Okay, I might actually be terrible at this. How about you repeat your so-called 'facts', I’ll put them into context and we’ll see to where that leads us?”

“That's-” Lance instinctively wanted to refuse, he didn’t like talking about his insecurities. At all. He felt vulnerable and stupid and tended to think himself into a downward spiral if there wasn’t someone with him.

But there was someone with him now and he trusted Keith to not let him drown.

“Yeah. Okay. We can- we can try that.” He breathed in deeply and focused his eyes on the corner of Keith's table. There was no way he could say any of that to his face.

“I don’t know why I am the blue paladin,” he admitted quietly. Keith let go of his hand and draped the arm around Lance’s body instead, pulling him closer.

“Allura was about to tell you your qualities when you interrupted her with a stupid comment. It just didn’t came up again afterward. If you want to know, you should just ask her.”

Keith was right, of course he was. He was right, he was right, he was right. But something in Lance refused to accept that explanation, something told him that there was more to it. It couldn't be just that, not when he knew that Allura wasn't the only one that treated him differently from everyone else.

So Lance didn’t reply, he just went on with the next one. “Coran checks up on me whenever someone mentions earth. Not on you though. Or Hunk. Or Pidge. Or Shiro. Only me.”

“Because you are the one that struggles with your loss the most,” Keith said. “Look. I don’t have a family to come back to. Shiro doesn’t either. The biggest part of Pidge’s family is somewhere out here in space. Hunk has one but he is in his element - his best friends are here, he is surrounded by engineering stuff, he can learn how to cook with foreign ingredients and he gets to protect people that need his help like those on the Balmera. Meanwhile you are struggling with how silent everything is, how little people there are, how there are no puddles or oceans around for you to splash in. It makes sense that you’re the one that misses earth the most.” Keith stopped talking for a moment as if he had felt Lance’s surprise at being understood so well by Keith of all people. “And I think that’s a good thing, Lance. It tells me that your attachments to other people are genuine and that you care.”

Lance felt tears rising up in his eyes again but suppressed them and tried to get closer to Keith instead. “Shiro always has to remind me to stop making Voltron unsteady.”

“He’s talking about your stupid tricks, not your mental bonding,” Keith responded immediately. “Pidge and I are the ones that are struggling the most with that. And you never do stupid maneuvers in battle. Never. I think you subconsciously do it during training to make sure that the rest of us has something to distract us or laugh at when the stress of our daily lives becomes too much.”

For a moment Lance was surprised. He could feel his eyes widening as he searched his own memories for proof, for signs that Keith had picked up on something that he had missed about himself - and was shocked to notice that Keith was _right_.

Keith was right.

Lance didn't do stupid tricks during battle. Of course he didn't, he had to protect his friends then. His makeshift family. His new home. And he had to protect them during training too, only he did it in a different way. Lance had never made the conscious decision to make a fool out of himself to cheer people up but now that Keith had pointed it out it was blatantly obvious.

An overwhelming feeling of love rose in Lance as he realized what that meant. Keith knew him, cared for him, understood him. Keith understood him better than he understood himself. Lance's gratitude and appreciation for Keith rose to levels that he hadn't even known were possible and in a swift movement he turned around and hugged him close. After a moment of surprise he felt his hug being reciprocated. 

“Next one?” Keith asked.

“Pidge tells me to shut up,” Lance whispered into Keith’s shoulder. 

Keith didn’t reply immediately, then: “Yeah sorry, I don’t think that I can help you with this one. You _do_ say a lot of dumb stuff.”

Lance actually laughed a little. “Why, thank you, now I feel so much better.”

“Suck it up, nerd.” Then, quieter, “but just because you say a lot of dumb stuff it doesn’t mean that you are dumb. Don’t even start going there.” Lance pressed his cheek harder onto Keith's shoulder and moved his right hand to the front for Keith's chest feel for his heartbeat. There it was: warm, steady and comforting. _Thud, thud, thud._

“Thanks.”

_Thud, thud, thud._

“Don't mention it. That wasn't all of it yet, right?”

“I won’t-”  _thud, thud, thud._

“You won’t?” 

“I won’t ever be a pilot as good as you.” _Thud, thud, thud._ The rhythm of Keith’s heart stayed steady and calming, carrying him through the conversation.

“Lance.” One of Keith’s hands ran down his back. “Lance, that is not true. You might have been a lousy pilot when you first arrived here but you made by far the most progress out of all of us. The only reason I’m better than you right now is because my lion is smaller and built to be more agile. Don’t you remember that insane shot you dodged last mission? You wouldn’t stop talking about it for days after.” A small smile snuck itself onto Lance's face. Oh yeah, he remembered that. Keith had been so annoyed with him that he had convinced Hunk to stop making him edible food until he started talking about other things again. “If we were back on earth and had regular ships, a race between us would be pretty intense. You are _good_.”

His breathing hitched and Lance’s hand curled into the fabric of Keith’s shirt. Hearing these words from Keith healed a wound in him that he hadn't even known was still open: that old, small wound from Garrison times where he had spent day after day chasing after him. Keith, Keith Kogane, fighter class student, pilot prodigy, paladin of the red lion, his boyfriend.

“Lance? Did you hear that?”

“Yeah, yeah I- I heard that.”

There were no words to describe how much he loved this man. Lance turned his head a little to hide his vulnerable smile in Keith's shirt.

“...are you okay?”

“Fine, just fine. Moving on.” When had he gotten to the point in this conversation that it was suddenly easier to continue than to shut up? “Hunk compliments me on my jokes and not on other stuff.”

“Well, _someone_ has to compliment your shitty jokes.”

Finally, finally Lance felt an honest laugh bubble up in his chest. “I’ll have you know that they are not shitty! They are amazing!”

“Amazingly shitty,” Keith solemnly nodded into his hair. Lance laughed again and he could feel Keith’s chest vibrating as he chuckled, too. 

“But seriously, if that’s something that bothers you, just tell him that, I don’t think he would mind changing his compliments around a bit. He probably didn’t even notice that he was doing it.” 

God, how Lance _loved_ this man. Keith. His boyfriend. The best boyfriend.

“How many are there left?” Keith asked suddenly. 

“Just one.”

“Alright, shoot. Was that the one about me laughing?” It sounded weird when Keith put it like that but Lance nodded anyway. For a while there nothing but silence, then Lance felt Keith’s heartbeat speeding up. Curious as to what was going on, he looked up. Keith was frowning slightly, staring at the pillow next to him.

“Keith?”

Keith’s eyes snapped towards him and softened when they met his. Lance didn’t know what he saw in them but he hoped that it was the love he was feeling with every fibre of his being. After a while, Keith looked away again.

“It’s you,” he said simply. 

“…huh?”

“Both of the times. It was… it was you. The first time I had just finished telling Lerajan about you and he said you reminded him of someone and proceeded to tell a story about his sister slipping and landing face first in a bucket full of water. I couldn’t help but imagine you doing it.” Lance could feel his own heart speeding up to match Keith’s pulse beneath his hand. “The second time I was just saying goodbye and he told me we should make it quick because otherwise ‘my boyfriend would get jealous’. I thought it was absurd and laughed but…” He smirked a little. “I guess he was right in the end.”

Lance stared at him. And kept staring. He had a vague feeling that he should probably feel a little offended at the last remark but couldn't really concentrate on anything other than the fact that Keith had been laughing because he was thinking of him. 

“...what?”

“Are you telling me that… despite talking to a super hot alien dude… and despite him telling funny stories about his siblings that it was the thought of _me_ doing _stupid shit_ that made you laugh?”

Keith raised his shoulders as if he tried to sink into himself a little - there it was again. Keith was embarrassed and didn't know what to say. And he was blushing.

Christ. God. Lance adored him so much, there really were no words to describe it. 

So instead of attempting it, he let a huge grin take over his face as he lunged forward to hug his boyfriend - the very best one - once more. “I _love_ you,” he insisted. “I love you a whole lot.” Keith made a half dying noise, then he returned the hug. 

“Yeah… same.”

“And, for the record, I'm sorry I was being an ass.”

“Apparently I missed out on the fact that my boyfriend had a huge inferiority complex so I guess we are even. You just need to apologize to Lerajan later.”

“Will do. Now kiss me?”

“Yeah, okay.”

Lance was still smiling when Keith's lips met his.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Ayyy idk what this mess is but if you made it to the end, congratulations for finishing this feels trip :P
> 
> On another note, I'm still looking for Voltron/Klance friends!! Hmu on [tumblr](http://keiths-stupid-mullet.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Thanks for reading!^^


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